What would I use a maxed Tyranitar for? How does it fare as a gym attacker?
Since reaching level 38, I have only maxed out three Machamps (15/15/15, 15/14/15, 14/15/15) and a Blissey (15/14/14). The other top-tier non-legendaries are Dragonite (likely to be outclassed by Garchomp) and Tyranitar.
I have thirteen Tyranitars (five from raids, two evolved hatchlings and six evolved Community Day catches), but none are 96% or higher. Taking only two with Bi/Cr and one with SD/SE to level 30 leaves me with 324 candy to eventually max out a 96% or higher (whether raid reward or hatchling), as well as 1.2M dust saved up for Gen IV.
Should I focus on raiding Tyranitar and max out the first 96% or higher one that I catch? Its effectiveness against Gen IV legendaries is less relevant when such raids (except for Mewtwo) usually attract full lobbies, where earning more than one damage ball is virtually impossible. Nevertheless, missing the first wave or raiding in less popular areas would become more viable with a maxed Tyranitar.
There is only one tier 4 boss that Tyranitar does well against: Alolan Marowak, which may be gone soon. Level 30 Tyranitars are more than good enough for soloing Gengar, Jynx, Starmie and Alolan Raichu, leaving Alakazam as the only tier 3 that calls for maxed Tyranitars. Of course, Tyranitar is a terrible gym defender, so attacking the highly competitive gyms in Singapore for coins is the role that will make or break a maxed Tyranitar for me. How good is Tyranitar as a gym attacker?
Against the Normal-type tanks, Tyranitar has lower DPS than Machamp, but potentially more TDO due to easier dodging as well as resisting Normal and Psychic moves. Both are equally weak to Fairy, while Tyranitar is unfortunately weak to Earthquake and Heavy Slam.
Ghost-type defenders are rare; will Gen IV introduce some good ones? As for Psychic-type defenders, Metagross and Gardevoir have secondary typings that counter Tyranitar, while Slowbro and Exeggutor are only occasionally seen in local gyms.
Answers
A lot of what Machamp can't plow through involves either flying or psychic typing. For these Tyranitar of their respective specialties work well enough. Incoming Gen 4 defenders we could see more use of include Togekiss and Drifblim. With their dual/triple resistance to fighting they force Machamp switches, but a SD Tyranitar can likely handle them both with ease. Togekiss could cause some trouble for Tyranitar if the move distribution gods introduce a fairy fast move and give it a dual fairy moveset, but we'll have to see what happens when Gen 4 does drop.
I don't know what the raid scene in Singapore is like, but in my area the "less exciting" legendaries (Regis, Suicune) tend to have a harder time drawing a crowd. I expect the lake trio and Cresselia to be the same, all 4 of which take super effective damage from dark Tyranitar. That said if people in Singapore still go hardcore for lesser legendaries then the stardust may be better invested elsewhere.
Otherwise take Clurachan's advice - Have your SD Tyranitars hit their last fast move breakpoint? I'd argue to shoot for the great friends breakpoint depending on who you plan to raid with that day.
Trade some of them. You've got 13 - choose 5-7 of them to trade with friends in a Tyranitar for Tyranitar trade. (I'd suggest only trading the non-Smackdown Ttars until you're Best Friends with someone because it would suck if you got a worse SD Ttar back, particularly if it wasn't a Lucky Ttar)
For one, you get an extra Candy or two (the event is over, so you won't be getting 4-6 per trade, but 2 is still nice) just for trading them. Second, you might get a Lucky Ttar - which might be a lower IV than what you traded away, but the Stardust cost for powering it up might make that an acceptable trade off. I did that last week with an "Ultra Friend" and ended up with a Lucky Ttar (and a lucky Larvitar; my first two Lucky Pokémon came in a row, both being 90+IV Attack 15, a Larvitar and a Ttar. Niantic "R"NG... sometimes you are so hard to hate.) to go along with getting extra candies, and traded 2 low IV Ttars with a friend yesterday for extra candies.
Regarding Gym attacking, I've found that Ttar is a very nice generalist attacker. Not the best by any means, but when I get my Ttars autoselected before sweeping a Gym, I generally don't swap them out. But in a competitive gym environment, you probably need more specialists and Ttar is a lot like Rayquaza in that regard - it's not BAD, it's just not the BEST.
It's pretty good, basically most matchups of commonly-placed Pokemon except DG Chansey/Blissey, DG Gardevoir, Water Gyarados, Steel Metagross, and any Rhydon. With SD/Cr or IT/Cr it makes a really good defender actually - the key is to pair it with a gym defender that heavily punishes Fighting-type users, such as Gardevoir, Espeon, or Hex Gengar.
However, if you're maxing one, I would still encourage an attacking B/Cr Tyranitar above anything. Psychic type is one of the most prevalent types out there, especially among the legendaries, and, at least in my experience of EX-Raids, the damage balls do vary and are always needed.
"Its effectiveness against Gen IV legendaries is less relevant when such raids (except for Mewtwo) usually attract full lobbies, where earning more than one damage ball is virtually impossible."
If this is your problem, then at the raid, suggest that people form team groups, and call over people from your team. Use a private raid code, and do the raid with 1-2 more people than are required, so that everyone gets 2 team balls, and 2-3 damage balls. You'll get better raid rewards that way, too.
